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"...What I am really asking is if there is an advantage of queen from the samel regional area versus buying from someone, in say, North Carolina..."

That's a good question. Things to ponder:

1. There are many that breed queens who have dedicated their lives to learning and improving their stock. Keep reading here on Beesource and you'll figure out pretty quickly who the good breeders are and where they are located, if you haven't already.

2. I prefer to get queens from a climate similar to mine. Fact is, they do better for me. So, I have focused on breeders in the north. I've look at Beesource members profiles to determine where they are located.

3. I joined my local bee assocations and have asked the members who supplies their queens. I've also noticed members here advertising in my regional assocation publications and I tend to want to support those people. I prefer to deal with localized (within a few hours of me) queen supplier(s) for a few reasons:

- proximity, in the event I want to visit them because I have a problem or want to learn or just want to bend their ear...(most beekeepers love to blab about honeybees - have you noticed!).
-transit time, - maybe I might prefer to pick up the queens personally to lower their stress level, due to delayed transit, hot spring/summer days, etc. This is speaking from experience; a USPS screw up in particular...(another story).

4. Availability if the breeder is important to me. As a few here know, I don't hesitate to pick up the phone and ask questions.

Anyway, in my case, I do believe that northern queens, from areas similar to my location do way better and I'll continue to develop relationships with those breeders that make my short list. So far the few that I deal with are personable, have a passion for honeybees, are extremely knowledgeable, and I'm happy to say are now friends (and they are all on Beesource).

Just my two cents...and without Beesource I wouldn't have found the queen breeders I deal with today...

Last edited by Jeffzhear; 12-08-2007 at 08:08 AM.
Reason: I had my numbering screwed up...

10) Whats the difference between your queens and everyone else's,
and how can we quantify these differences?

Clearly, some guy grafting queens in his backyard is not going to
have answers to even half these questions, so you get what you
pay for.

Clearly, this is the most basic and important question to ask the breeder and yourself. For myself, buying queens was one "recommended routine practice" of beekeeping that I dropped early on. The cost of queens simply didn't pay off. I could keep my bees raising their own queens and not experience a shortcoming. For a guy running a handful of hives, let nature work for you. If your commercial, your experience will probably come to a different conclusion.